HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY FOR THOSE LONG GONE

Here's my mother with my father and siblings. I'm the one in her arms, my brother Buddy (James) behind me was about to join the Navy and end up in Okinawa at the end of WWII, our oldest brother, Tommy, in uniform, was in the Army Air Corps, the other brother, Robert (his first name was actually William) was too young for the military, my sisters Joan and Irene were still in grade school, Our Lady of Sorrows (talk about mothers). Another brother, John, between me and the others, had died as an infant. My father was a seventh grade drop out who started small businesses after earlier ones failed and my mother, a high school graduate, was his secretary, taking care of all the bills etc. as well as all us kids. My guess is we were celebrating Tommy's leaving to go back to the Army, an occasion, like most, that required all to dress in their Sunday best. My mother passed in 1966, the day before Mother's Day as I remember it. The only ones in the photograph still alive are the youngest of my two sisters, Irene, and me.